Lies, Fire, Loss and Family
by PowerToThePizza
Summary: This is a story about a thief who got caught. It's about a madman who found a group of lost things. It's about the inhuman things humans did do. It's a story of love, adventure and action that will make you laugh and cry. This is about a family - Michael, Kin, Jared, Saoirse, Zach and Lucas - and their efforts to stay together. This story doesn't have a happy ending. R&R!


# S #  
It would have been wrong to call these things children. These creatures, these mishappen, misshaped, misplaced creatures, with bloodshot eyes and stringy hair and mouths full of teeth like razors. They weren't children, and they certaintly weren't human. They were unnatural things.  
They were feral; they pressed themselves against the bars of their cages and their dog crates and they screeched and yowled and roared and screamed. It was a cacophany of pain and fear and hatred and anger. They were rabid, unseeing, unable to comprehend anything but the lab they had been created in. Their hands, tipped with overgrown, yellowing nails, shaped into talons, and their faces stretched into inhuman masks.  
There was one that he noticed first, one with a cooler demeanour, more watchful eyes that did not dart. She was calmer, more assessive of the situation. More than any of the other creatures, she looked sentient and alive. Her hair was dark and short, her eyes dark and narrow. She had olive skin and a malnourished body, and her eyes were so fixed and staring that it was as though she could see nothing in front of her. She looked a little lost, but she was smiling. Just a hint, a curl to the lips, a brightness to the eyes, a lightness to her stance. But she was definitely smiling a little bit.  
She was the only person in the room doing so.  
"How much for that one?" he asked quietly, merely inclining his head towards his choice. His guide, Dr Tam, looked puzzled for a mere moment.  
"Experiment X12?" A pause, and then she said - "Half of standard fee. She's a troublesome one; we'll be glad to be rid of her." Her eyes flickered over the others he had chosen; all rejects, misfits, troublemakers. Other than that? Nothing in common. EK21 was the youngest they had, barely nine years old; EM05 was an openly rebellious Eraser clone; EW97 was the last of their avian/human recombinants; and EA38 was, quite frankly, a recombinant mess, an experiment gone completely wrong, due to be killed the next morning - before this man had shown up, of course.  
And now EX21. Strange.  
But it was not her place to question a customer, so she pulled out a set of keys and opened up EX21's cage. The recombinant was crouched, her hands resting on her knees, her head bent to study the floor. Dr. Tam went to open her shackles - and before she did, EX21 had launched right at her and knocked her onto her back. She had escaped the shackles, how had she escaped the shackles? They hung abandoned on one of the bars of the cage. Almost as though they were taunting her.  
EX21 didn't stop. She turned in the opposite direction to the purchaser, and sprinted for the doors. She was fast, no doubt about it, but she wasn't fast enough. A camera swivelled in her direction, red light flickering, and the door she was running towards slid open to admit two burly, musclebound 'nurses', each of whom held experimental AK98 machine guns.  
EX21's stride faltered for the briefest moment, and then she raced forward again. She jumped, and turned in the air so that she could kick off the side of the door and grab the top of the frame. She swung herself and shot over the head of the smaller man.  
However, the taller and stronger of the two reached up and grabbed her, one arm snagging her arm, the other seizing EX21 by the hair. She yelled, and kicked him in the face; he threw her clear across the room and against the wall, hard. She hit a few cages on her way and the mutants in them yowled and shook the bars again. EX21 didn't get up. Dr. Tam lay on the ground for a few more minutes, trying to regain her breath and her dignity. "Damn mutants," she muttered, and then she auled herself up with the assistance of one of the nurses. EX21 still didn't move.  
The customer walked slowly over to her. Soft, catlike footsteps. The girl's body tensed - so she was faking. He had thought so.  
He knelt beside her quietly and for a moment neither spoke, allowing Dr. Tam's swearing to fill the room.  
"What is your name?" he asked quietly.  
Her eyes flickered open and they watched each other silently for the longest moment. Her eyes were black, as though the pupil had swallowed up any iris. His eyes were the palest, iciest blue colour, a colour that was bright and alive.  
"I don't have one." Barely breathing the answer.  
"You're lying."  
Her lips curled. "What is your name?"  
"I don't have one."  
"You're lying too."  
He smiled and extended a hand. Hesitantly, she took it. 


End file.
